A cell handover (Channel Switch) refers to channel switching that is performed to maintain communication continuity when user equipment (UE, User Equipment) moves from one cell to another cell. How to successfully and quickly complete a cell handover is one of focuses of cellular cell system design in a wireless communications system.
As a main cell handover technology, a soft handover technology means that UE first establishes a link to a target cell, and then disconnects a link to a source cell, which may reduce a possibility of communication interruption. The soft handover technology is mainly applied to a communications system using an intra-frequency networking mode. During a soft handover, the system additionally configures resources for the UE to improve communication quality of the UE in the soft handover process.
In the prior art, generally, a soft handover rate of a cell is preset during cell planning, that is, a ratio of resources occupied by UE that establishes link connections to at least two cells is preset. If a higher soft handover rate is set, usage of system resources is higher. If an excessively high soft handover rate is set, a system capacity is reduced because an excessive amount of system resources are occupied. If an excessively low soft handover rate is set, interruption may occur in communication of some users, a call drop rate of the cell is increased, and communication quality is affected. Therefore, a method capable of adjusting the soft handover rate properly according to an actual running status of the system is needed to optimize system performance.